C02 can be used to make useful materials. I saw this at the WIRED Next Fest in Chicago

"Oranges and carbon dioxide become plastic via the alchemy of catalysts first discovered at Cornell University. While researchers have worked for years to combine renewable materials like carbon-based limonene (found in citrus peels) and carbon dioxide into polymers (the building blocks of plastic), these catalysts do the job so well they have made the process cheap — paving the way for today's healthy snack to one day become tomorrow's renewable plastic fork." newbielink:http://www.wirednextfest.com/inform/2008/exhibits/plastic_CO2.php [nonactive]

The Naked Scientists® and Naked Science® are registered trademarks.
Information presented on this website is the opinion of the individual contributors
and does not reflect the general views of the administrators, editors, moderators,
sponsors, Cambridge University or the public at large.